The present invention relates in general to sprinkler shut off tools for stopping the flow of water from activated fire sprinkler heads, and more particularly to an improved sprinkler head shut off tool.
The sprinkler heads of the automated fire protection sprinkler systems used in buildings and ships when activated by a fire sensor or accidentally, can cause water damage to buildings and other objects in the coverage area and other areas that the water can flow to.
Frequently, it is difficult to access the water valve to stop the flow of water from the sprinkler head. Therefore, it is desirable to have the means to stop the water flow. Several devices have been developed in art. For example, U.S. Pub. No. 20060042803 to Gallaher discloses a tool to stop the flow of water through an activated fire protection sprinkler head. This tool is designed to be a heavy duty, simple to operate mechanism capable of deactivating fire preventing sprinkler heads quickly. By simply turning the outer housing of the tool, by hand or by means of an adjustable extension pole, shut-off levers of this tool will be moved apart within the bracket of the sprinkler head until co-action between the bracket and one of the levers forces the other lever, preferably one bearing a shut-off gasket, against the open water orifice in the sprinkler head, thereby preventing the flow of water through it.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,976,141 to Harrington discloses a device useful for shutting off the flow of water from the heads to minimize the damage resulting from the continuous flow of water. The device is effective to shut off the water from the sprinkler heads whether or not the heads are mounted so that the opening is located at the top or bottom or with heads having openings at the top and also openings at the bottom. The device is so constructed as to seal off either type of opening when applied to a sprinkler head.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,191,685 to Warne discloses an invention whose principal object is to provide a simple, neat and light weight tool which can be instantly applied to an open sprinkler head to rapidly, completely and safely shutoff the discharging water. Tools have been designed for this purpose, but due to the wide variety of sprinkler heads activated in different ways; for instance by heat or impact. No one tool is designed to cover these possibilities. It is therefore another object of this invention to provide in a single tool for closing any of the conventional standard sprinkler heads regardless of whether they open downwardly or upwardly, whether they are bent or broken due to impact or activated by heat and regardless of whether they are of the fixed yoke or Cain suspension varieties.
Although prior art tools serve the same purpose but they differ structurally from the present invention. They use a thread mechanism which has to be rotated to operate the tool, whereas present tool is operated by turning a lever with hand. This and other features of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the appended Summary, Description, and Claims.